My Writing Group

I firmly believe that being a member of a writing group can give a writer a huge boost. When times seem to drag a writer down, when nothing seems to be working for you, being a member of a writing group means there’ll be people with you who truly do understand.

And when your writing feels flat then your writing group may give you some feedback, or a new idea, that leads you and your writing to a fresh and exciting place. My writing group is certainly that group for me. The Adelaide Plains Poets is the group I began, with some other writers, and I’m proud and happy that group is still going, around fifteen years later.

The members of the group have changed, some move further away, some lose interest and move only other things. This is fine, the nature of groups is they change and grow, or scale back in size, or change focus. My group has increased in scope of what we do, and the group size is just right for the place we usually hold our meetings.

The reason for meeting at my place is because I can’t attend meetings at the moment, because I’ve fractured my right ankle, and can’t put any weight on that foot. I also can’t drive, not for at least a month or so from now, at the earliest. So I’ve had some time in hospital, to have an operation on the ankle, and now I’m resting and rehabilitating. I keep my right foot up a lot of the time during the day.

This could have been a totally boring time, so I was thrilled to learn that the group wanted to meet at my place, once a fortnight, so I didn’t miss out completely. (The group meets every Thursday afternoon). So I do my homework every week, and get to read it out to the other group members, if I want to. This is a great way to keep on writing, in a creative way.

I could have been writing more of my current work in progress, of course, but at the moment, but head doesn’t seem to be thinking that way. I hope to get back on my cozy mystery series sometime again, but while I’m stuck at home, with Facebook and Twitter close at hand, they take up lots of time …

When my head finally decides it’s time to get back to my mysteries, I hope I can really get going with it! Do you have times like that too, when the time doesn’t seem right for a particular project? I’d love to know how it went for you, please feel free to leave a comment here!